Website Smart

A website contains one or more web pages (okay, very basic info, I know). Web sites are made up of electronic documents (pages) accessible on the World Wide Web or Internet. A web site's pages share a common root URL or domain name extension (like website-smart.com). By following Web hyperlinks (links), the Web user can navigate between different Web pages and websites.

If you plan on making a good Web site, remember the importance of organization. You should make your website as easy to use as possible, because this will encourage more visitors and helps you maintain your web site more easily.

Some web sites require visitors to pay a fee before they can access certain pages. These fees may be regular, or they may be for one time only.

Some websites require a free registration for viewers to be able to see certain parts of the site or so that they can have access to special features. Typically, registration consists of entering a few details about yourself, like perhaps your name, e-mail address, mailing address and phone number.

There are all kinds of Websites. There are even Web sites about Websites, like this one! The World Wide Web is like a universe where Web sites are the solar systems and Web pages are the stars and planets.

You can make a web site on your own fairly easily. There are Web sites that can help you know how to build your own website. If you have basic computer skills, you can create your own website for free and even place it on the Web for free.

A business Website houses information about a company. Your business can offer products and services for online sale.

Web plugins can enable Web visitors to see dynamic content, such as Flash, Shockwave or Java applets.

There are many types of websites. Here are a few:

• Archive websites preserve valuable Web content so that it doesn't become extinct. One great archive web site is The Internet Archive (Archive.org), a nonprofit organization whose goal is to preserve websites for research use. Another well-known archive website is Google Groups (groups.google.com), which has archived hundreds of millions of messages posted to Usenet news/discussion groups.
• Business websites are used to promote products and services.
• Commerce websites (or e-commerce web sites) are used to purchase goods and services. One example of an e commerce website is Amazon.com (Amazon.com), which sells new and used books, movies, music and other items.
• A community website is a web site where people with similar interests can communicate with each other by real-time text messaging (often referred to as chatting) or electronic message boards.

There are actually several different spellings for the term website. Although website is probably the most commonly used variation, many people prefer Web site or web site.

Here are a few links related to websites:

Webbyawards.com - The Webby Award is a popular award honoring Web sites that excel in their design, creativity and ease of use. The award was established in 1996 and is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

W3.org - The World Wide Web Consortium (or W3C) was created in 1994 to establish universal Web site design rules. W3C has over 350 member organizations worldwide and has received international acclaim for its contributions to Web development.

Thank you for reading this brief guide to websites. Please read our other website information pages to learn more about other topics related to web sites.